Unofficial US-Iran Talks Lay Groundwork For Possible Direct Contacts

President Barack Obama has made clear his
intention to open some kind of dialogue with Iran if the circumstances are
right. That stance has sparked intense speculation about if and when such direct
contacts would be opened. But informal contacts have already been laying the
foundation for that to happen.

Defense and security advisors from the Obama
presidential campaign participated in unofficial meetings with Iranian officials
over the past year, according to one of the organizers.

The meetings were held under the auspices of the
Pugwash Conferences, a nongovernmental group devoted to promoting international
understanding. The group won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for its work advocating
nuclear non-proliferation.

Speaking to VOA, Jeffrey Boutwell, the executive
director of Pugwash, said there were four such meetings last year, three in the
Netherlands and a final one in Vienna. Boutwell said there was no official
sanction sought or received from the U.S. government for the meetings. But he
feels they did lay the groundwork for any future official dialogue between
Tehran and Washington under the Obama administration.

"It's up to the Obama administration to make
those decisions, but we think we served a useful purpose last year in clarifying
positions on the two sides so that if direct talks proceed between Obama
administration officials and the Iranian government they'll have a better
understanding of each side's position," he said.

Boutwell confirmed that former defense secretary
William Perry, who was
a national security advisor to the Obama campaign, participated in the
discussions. He would not reveal other participants. But he said the American
participants were people with some access to the corridors of power.

"So, if we happened to have some people -- let's
just say, good access into the Obama campaign, and people with access to Bush
Administration officials as well, people who were well thought of who would be
listened to by people both in the (Bush) administration and also in the Obama
campaign," he said.

When asked about the meetings, a State Department
spokesman said that these sorts of contacts, if they occurred, should not be
confused with government-to government discussions.

Boutwell says the Pugwash did not seek any
official approval for its conferences. "These were people meeting in their
personal capacities but people who have access in their respective capitals to
important people in the governments. So in terms of official approval or
sanction, no, certainly not from the U.S. government. We never sought it nor
would we seek it. We just invite people in their personal capacities to attend.
And if they are able to attend, well, then you can draw your own conclusions as
to whether or not a government is tacitly going along with it."

In fact, Iranian and U.S. officials have met in
several different circumstances to discuss specific issues, such as stability in
Iraq.

Gary Sick, an Iran scholar at Columbia
University, adds that meetings such as the Pugwash conferences are not unusual.
He has participated in several such meetings. But, he adds, they are sensitive,
particularly on the Iranian side.

"It is not conspiratorial and it is not covert.
The two governments are fully aware that these things are going on. But it can
be very embarrassing for the individuals involved if somebody quotes them out of
context publicly and says that this is what they were saying to so-and-so. And
so the Iranians, especially in the last year, have become extremely cautious
about participating in these things."

Other so-called Track Two - that is, unofficial -
Iranian-American meetings have been reported elsewhere, including several over
the past five years between former American diplomats and Iranian academics and
policy advisors.

Reports Emerge On High-Level U.S.-Iran Talks

By Golnaz Esfandiari (source: RFE/RL)

"The Washington Times" writes on January 30 about a
meeting that apparently took place last year between former U.S. Defense
Secretary William J. Perry and a senior adviser to Iran's President Mahmud
Ahmadinejad.

The report, based on information from "a person familiar
with the back-channel talks," states that "the person, who asked not to be named
because of the sensitivity of the topic, said the talks took place with Mojtaba
Samareh Hashemi, Mr. Ahmadinejad's closest aide, and were 'discussions, not
negotiations,' aimed at clarifying understanding of the two sides' positions."

The "Washington Times" article continues: "Former U.S. officials have had
numerous conversations with Iranians over the years, but few, if any, with
officials as influential as Samareh.

"It was not clear whether Mr. Perry, a veteran statesman who also served as a
Clinton administration troubleshooter on the North Korean nuclear program, was
acting at the behest of the Bush administration or others. The Bush White House
rejected several overtures for back-channel talks with Iranian officials in 2005
and 2006."

An Iranian website, Ayandenews, also reports that Perry met with some "Iranian
political officials" last year, following Barack Obama's election victory.

The website reports that the meeting took place in "suitable" conditions and the
two sides reached some kind of agreement.

Perry and Iranian officials have yet to comment on the reports.

Ayandehnews reports that Vice President Rahim Mashaei's trip to the United
States was the most important visit by an Iranian official to the United States
since Obama's election.

Some other Iranians
news sites had reported that Mashaei had traveled to the United
States in November to meet with then-President-elect Obama to talk about the
normalization of ties. But he reportedly received a cold welcome, and made
little progress.